


Return to the Tower

by kathkin



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: Gen, Minor Character Death, some violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-27
Updated: 2017-08-28
Packaged: 2018-12-20 17:05:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11925339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kathkin/pseuds/kathkin
Summary: I. This is a story about the time the Doctor landed aboard the Tower and saved the people from a deadly threat. II. This is a story about the time the Doctor landed aboard the Tower and couldn't save the people from a threat from within. III. This is a story about the time the Doctor landed aboard the Tower.





	1. Episode One

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for and rejected by [The Temporal Logbook II](https://thetemporallogbook.wordpress.com/).

“– and what did I tell you?” said Jamie. “It’s just dark. Nothing to be frightened of.”

“Well, it’s, it’s a certain _kind_ of dark,” said the Doctor, stumbling out of the TARDIS. “There’s just, hm, a quality about it. Something isn’t right here.”

Zoe surveyed their location. Based on the echo, she’d say they were in a very large space. The only light came from their torches, and the flicking lamp atop the TARDIS. 

“What makes you think something isn’t right, Doctor?” If she was going to be honest, she felt it too. A vague, uneasy feeling. But that was as likely to be a reaction to the dark and the unknown as anything else.

“Ah, it’s very simple, Zoe,” said the Doctor. “When something isn’t right, my left ear starts to itch,” he said, and rubbed it. If anything, Zoe reflected, that raised further questions. “Now, let’s see what’s over here!”

“Oh, aye,” said Jamie. They moved away from her, feet clicking on the tiled floor, and resigned to her fate Zoe followed them.

No matter how far they walked, her torch beam didn’t reach to the walls, or to the ceiling. They came across a flat cuboid of metal, like a plinth with no statue. The Doctor rubbed his chin and dropped into a crouch.

“Should have it’s own power supply.” He popped off a small panel. “If I just – ah, yes.” Something inside the plinth went _click_. It sputtered into life.

In the air above the plinth appeared a ghostly image that flickered and wavered – and stabilised. At first she thought it was a medieval castle, a tower tapering to a narrow turret. But looking closer, she saw that the bottom was pointed as well, and marked with shuttered slits. It was a space station, and one of the largest she’d ever seen.

Before she could ask, Jamie said, “this is the Tower.” He looked up into the darkness, and said, “we’re in the atrium.”

“Yes,” said the Doctor, tapping his lips in thought.

Suddenly, they were all business. “I don’t like this,” said Jamie. “I don’t like this one bit.”

“Oh, no?” said the Doctor faintly, transfixed by the image before them.

“Doctor, I think we should go back,” said Jamie. “You were right. Something’s wrong.”

“Oh, yes?”

“I mean – where is everyone?” Jamie turned a slow circle, shining his torch all around them. Emptiness. Darkness.

“I haven’t the foggiest idea,” said the Doctor. “Don’t you think we ought to find out?”

“There’s some things you’re better off not knowing,” said Jamie grimly.

“We’re inside that thing.” Zoe nodded at the image. “And you’ve been here before?”

“Aye,” said Jamie. “Twice.”

“That’s funny,” said Zoe.

“Nothing funny about it,” said Jamie. “Doctor, I really mean it this time. I want tae leave.”

“You can wait in the TARDIS if you like.” The Doctor peered at the circuitry he’d exposed. “I’m going to see if I can get any more information out of this thing.”

He was off in his own world. Zoe looked at Jamie. Jamie sighed, jerking his head in the direction of the TARDIS. “I suppose we ought tae have a wee look around.”

“Is this place dangerous?” said Zoe as they walked away.

“Erm,” said Jamie. “No more dangerous than anywhere else. It’s a city.”

“Without any people?” said Zoe. “I suppose they might have evacuated. It’s odd, though. Other than the lights everything seems to be working.”

They came at last to the edge of the atrium. A marble balustrade. Beyond it was a deep, dark drop, and at the bottom a stone walkway rimmed by archways.

“I mean, we have air, and gravity,” Zoe went on.

“Maybe they just got sick of living in the dark,” said Jamie. “Or maybe –” Then, apropos of nothing, she heard him say, “– _smells of death_.”

“ _That’s your imagination_ ,” said another a voice she didn’t know.

Softly, Jamie said, “oh, lord,” and nudged her.

Emerging from the farthest archway were two figures, translucent and washed out. One was, unmistakeable even at that distance, Jamie. The other a blonde girl Zoe didn’t recognise.

“That’s you,” she hissed.

“I can see that,” said Jamie. “That’s – it’s the first time we came here.”

“Who’s that girl?” Below them the figures roamed about, inspecting the archways.

“That’s Polly. She – she was a friend.”

“We can hear them,” said Zoe. “Do you think they can hear us?” Before he could object, she called out, “hello down there!”

“Zo-ee!” Jamie ducked out of sight.

“ _Hello_?” a voice called back.

Peering over the balustrade, Zoe saw the girl, Polly, looking up at her – or rather, through her. “ _That’s funny. I could have sworn I heard someone._ ”

“ _Aye, I heard it too. Mibbe_ –”

And just like that, they were gone. 

“That was _creepy_ ,” said Jamie.

Zoe said, “I think we ought to find the Doctor.”

*

_“What is this,” Ben peered at an elaborate stone coffin. “Some sort of crypt?”_

_“Something like that,” said the Doctor._

_Polly snatched her hand away from the sarcophagus she’d been leaning on._

_“I don’t imagine there are dead bodies inside, though,” said the Doctor. He brushed his hand over the stone. “There’s power running through here – some kind of, hm, knowledge bank.”_

_“Hey!” called out Jamie. “Come and see this.”_

_Polly followed the sound of his voice along the crypt wall to an archway. Beyond the archway was a sheer wall, like a cliff. She looked where Jamie was pointing – straight up. Above them was a a row of marble pillars, and beyond that a tall narrow space as grand as any cathedral, but far higher than any cathedral she’d ever seen. Stairs wound around the outside, up and up, fading into the distance, and running up and down them were people so small they were specks._

_“Oh,” she said._

_“I came out to take the air,” said Jamie. “It smells like death, back there.” He jerked his head at the archway._

_“That’s your imagination,” said Polly. “Do you suppose we’re really in outer space?”_

_“I think we must be,” said Jamie gravely. “I don’t know if you could build anything this big on earth.”_

_“I suppose not,” said Polly. “We ought to –”_

_Plain as day, she heard a girl’s voice call out. “Hello!”_

_“Hello?” she called back. But the balustrade above them was empty._

_“That’s funny. I could have sworn I heard someone.”_

_“Aye, I heard it too,” said Jamie._

*

The Doctor wasn’t by the plinth, nor was he in the TARDIS. They called out and heard an answering shout.

“Upstairs!” 

Three flights up, they found him, and found a sight that took Zoe’s breath away.

A towering archway, and beyond it a space with some light. A strip of orange emergency lights high above. It was some kind of miniature factory, a production line. People piecing together weapons.

It was like looking at a black and white photograph. It was some kind of production line. Row after row of people, frozen in place, their skin and clothes and hair a dusty grey. “Are they statues?” said Zoe, knowing deep down that they weren’t. 

“Hmm.” The Doctor picked up a discarded bolt. He tossed it at the nearest figure and with a soft _paff_ , it dissolved into billowing dust. “Don’t touch them.” The Doctor wiped his hand on his trousers. “Don’t touch anything, if you can avoid it.”

“What’s the matter with them?” said Jamie.

“Temporal decay. Like I said – something’s dreadfully wrong.” The Doctor tugged on his ear. “Hmm? What did I tell you? Itchy ears.”

“They were making weapons,” said Zoe. “What is this place?”

“It’s a city,” said the Doctor. “There was, well, a war.”

“Aye, and we landed right in the middle of it.”

*

_The explosion rocked the crypt, sending dust and debris flying. Sparks flew from the sarcophagi and as they threw themselves to the floor the Doctor turned to Polly and with an incongruous grin said, “what did I tell you? Data banks!”_

_Her ears were ringing, but the world around them had gone silent. Jamie lay nearby, weakly groping for a hold on a sarcophagus. Ben lay beside her, still, his face bloodied. “Ben?” said Polly. She shook him, and he groaned. “Ben! Ben, wake up!”_

_“Don’t move!”_

_All around them were soldiers in cobbled together uniforms holding cobbled together guns._

_“Who are you?” said the leader. “Identify yourself!”_

_“I’m, I’m the Doctor,” he said, rising onto his knees, gesturing at his chest. “These are my friends, Polly and Jamie, and Ben. He’s hurt. He needs medical attention. We’re not armed.”_

_The leader was faltering. He wasn’t the type to shoot them out of hand. They might be alright. Slowly, he lowered his gun. “We’ll take you to the Queen.”_

*

“What happens if we touch them?” Zoe tried to get a closer look, but the Doctor held her back.

“Maybe nothing,” he said. “Or the temporal decay could spread to you and age you to dust in a nanosecond. Poof! No more Zoe.”

“That’s horrible,” said Zoe.

“Is that what happened to them?” Jamie gestured at the factory workers.

“No,” said the Doctor. “No, this happened far more quickly than that.”

There was a shrill whistling, faint, as if in the far distance. The factory whistle. 

The workers were came to life. Dim white figures emerged from the dust-people. It was like a double exposure, the ghostly figures and the statues overlapping.

Above it all, a screen set into the wall kicked into life, and on it was a face. A pale, distorted face with eyes too big to be human, a gaping mouth, cables dangling from its ears, an orange curly wig atop its bald head.

“ _Unit 16, you are this week’s most productive weapons unit. You have my commendation. Now work harder! Faster! The Tower will prevail!_ ”

The workers faded into nothing. Zoe broke the silence that followed. “What was _that_?”

*

_The Queen might have been human, once. A cadaverous figure on a high throne, bone showing through the metal of her arms, her wide hooped skirt concealing whatever was left of her legs. Her eyes had been replaced with camera lenses. Polly clapped a hand to her own mouth, feeling sick._

_“They are not dangerous,” pronounced the Queen’s tinny voice._

_“There, didn’t I tell you?” said the Doctor. “It’s, it’s an honour to meet you, your majesty.”_

_“The Tower is a refuge for all,” the Queen went on. “But I wish you to leave.”_

_The Doctor’s face fell. “Leave? Why?”_

_“It isn’t safe,” the Queen said. “It isn’t safe. You must leave.”_

*

The Doctor hopped on the balls of his feet, looking up the stairs. “Hmm,” he said. “An hour’s walk, I’d say. It’s not so far.”

“Aye, but all those steps?” said Jamie. “No, thanks.”

“Do we really have to go up there?” Zoe’s legs ached at the thought.

“Oh no, no,” said the Doctor. “You two have a look around here. I’ll see you back at the TARDIS. And remember! Don’t touch anything!” He vanished into the darkness.

“What happened? When you came here before?” said Zoe.

“What do you think?” said Jamie. “We tried to help.”

*

_“Aha, so this is where you make your magic happen!” The Doctor clapped his hands in delight._

_“This is the central control room, yes,” said Byron, the Tower’s chief technician. “If we come under attack, we set the co-ordinates – here – and whisk ourselves off somewhere safe.”_

_“A very elegant system, I must say,” said the Doctor._

_“It’s no’ working, though.” The Doctor shot Jamie a dirty look. “If these bug-beasties keep on finding you.”_

_“Well, the theory’s elegant,” said the Doctor. “By all rights this place ought to be untraceable. Hmm.”_

_“Could be something rotten’s attracting them,” Jamie said grimly. “Like flies, ye ken._

_“That’s certainly an idea.” The Doctor looked down at the screen. “Eh? What? Did you do this?”_

_On the screen, a neat row of co-ordinates had appeared._

_“What? No!” said Byron. “I thought it was you.”_

_“You didn’t touch this, did you, Jamie?” said the Doctor._

_“Who, me?”._

_“Hmm. Most curious.” The Doctor’s eyebrows bunched together in thought._

_“We ought to analyse them,” said Byron. “See if we can’t ascertain where they go.”_

_“Hm? Oh, yes. Yes, what a good idea.” The Doctor smacked his hand down upon the biggest, reddest button._

_There was a rumbling like the world tearing in two, every particle of the Tower shrieking in protest. The air went white._

_There was a rumbling like the world tearing in two, every particle of the Tower shrieking in protest. The force of the movement sent them all tumbling to the ground. Jamie lay on his back, dazed, nursing a hurt elbow._

_“Ordinarily,” said Byron, struggling to get up. “We would engage certain – comfort protocols.”_

_“Terribly sorry.” The Doctor hopped to his feet. “Now! Let’s see where we are, shall we?”_

*

Zoe was used to space stations being small, cramped structures. Space was a luxury to be conserved. This palatial structure was alien, more like something from an old-fashioned fairy story than from the real world.

“I don’t suppose you remember your way around,” she said to Jamie as they hiked up the steps.

“No’ really,” he said. “It’s been – ach, I don’t know. A year, mibbe?”

Zoe reached the next level and stopped to catch her breath. Here was their objective: a floor-to-ceiling window onto space. She’d had a vain hope that by looking at the stars she might be able to ascertain their position, but she saw nothing familiar.

Except – no. Those glowing white blobs weren’t stars at all. “Oh, my. Jamie, look at this.”

“What?” He reached the window. “Oh, hell. Look at that.”

They were ghosts, like those they’d seen in the Tower. But so many! Thousands – _tens_ of thousands. She thought they were ships, but they were insects. Giant insects, with armoured bodies and sleek wings and fanged mouths. 

Every last one of them was writhing in agony, till they burst into flames – only to reappear, whole and wriggling, and begin the process again.

“What _did_ this?” she said.

“It was the Doctor,” Jamie said distantly, as if he didn’t quite believe it himself. “I didn’t see it happen before.”

“This is the war they were fighting?” Zoe guessed.

“This is how it ended. Aye.”

*

_“So, where are we?” said Polly, peering out of the window._

_“I haven’t the foggiest idea!” said the Doctor cheerily. “Deep space – perhaps between the spiral arms of a galaxy.”_

_“Sounds like a good place to hide,” said Polly._

_“Quite,” said the Doctor. “Whoever set those co-ordinates knew what they were doing.”_

_“Or mibbe it was random and we got lucky,” said Jamie._

_“No need to be so pessimistic,” said the Doctor. “Besides, I doubt that very much. This area of space has some rather peculiar properties…”_

_Gazing out the window, Jamie said, “och, no.”_

_“Hm? What is it now?” The Doctor scowled at being interrupted._

_“Look who’s back.” Jamie pointed out the window._

_Lights, moving towards them so fast they were a blur. It wasn’t until they were almost upon the Tower that Polly could make sense of what she was looking at. Bugs – thousands and thousands of them, a full fighting force ready to tear the the Tower apart._

_“Oh, oh no!” cried the Doctor, dancing away from the window. “I’ll, I’ll find Byron. You two raise the alarm!”_

_Jamie and Polly exchanged a horrified look – and before they could even step away from the window, the first Bug impacted and the explosion rocked the floor beneath their feet, sending them careening down the stairs, into the darkness below._

*

The Doctor stood at the top of the Tower, catching his breath, peering over the balustrade at how far he’d come. “Well,” he said, clucking his tongue. “No time to waste.” Turning on his heel, he hopped up the spiralling steps into the spire.

Before him, tucked into the tiny space, was the TARDIS. His TARDIS – or rather, not his TARDIS, but an insubstantial replica, its flaring light casting an eerie glow. “Ah, yes. This is where we landed.”

As if on cue, the doors of the time echo opened. “– _**was** a bit of a bumpy landing,_ ” his own voice said. 

“ _Don’t worry, Victoria_ ,” said Jamie. “ _It’s no’ always like that._ ”

“ _Oh, I do hope not!_ ” 

The Doctor allowed himself a fond smile.

*

_“Is it just me or does this place seem sort of familiar?” said Jamie, looking about the narrow chamber. The smell of it rang a bell, the atmosphere. “Eh? Doctor?”_

_“Hmm?” The Doctor was gazing at the narrow doorway. He’d been somewhere else entirely. “Most peculiar. What was that, Jamie?”_

_“I **said** , this place seems sort of familiar,” said Jamie._

_“Does it?” said the Doctor._

_“Is it a castle?” said Victoria as they thumped down the steps. “I’ve always wanted to meet a knight in shining armour –”_

_Before them were six men in chrome body armour, each of them angling a dagger-like gun in their direction. The Doctor flung his hands in the air while Victoria stood bewildered and Jamie stared at the insignia on their armour._

_“We come in peace!” cried the Doctor._

_“Hey,” said Jamie. “This is the Tower.”_

_“Hands up, the pair of you,” said the Doctor out of the corner of his mouth._

_“Intruders!” said the lead knight. “Identify yourselves or you will be shot.”_

_“Hey, now!” Jamie made a move forward. “Don’t you recognise us? We saved your skins –”_

_Catching him by the arm, the Doctor dragged him back. “Not, ah, not yet.”_

_“Eh?” Jamie looked at the pristine walls, unmarked by gunfire or explosions.“Oh. Oh, no.”_

*

The temporal echoes brushed past him into the staircase, and in the blink of an eye they were gone. The Doctor blinked away the afterimages and turned his attention to the TARDIS. “Let’s see, shall we.” He tried his key in the door.

To his delight, it opened. The comfortable shape of his control room was at once familiar and bizarre, a glowing outline through which was visible the interior of the spire, a space far too small to hold it. 

But it _was_ , nonetheless, his TARDIS. His console, which at his touch became substantial, colours bleeding into levers and dials. He circled the console, touching screens and dials one by one, until he found it.

“Aha!” he cried, tapping his fingers on the screen in delight. “There we are. Now, did I –” He patted himself down, feeling his pockets. Finding a battered ballpoint pen, he rolled back his coat sleeve and began to jot numbers onto his arm. “Sixteen – delta – seven and three quarters – latitude, hm, one hundred point five… there.” He capped the pen smartly and grinned at his work. “That’s one piece of the puzzle.”

A mournful, bass sound echoed through the filmy control room. He glanced up from his work and sighed. “Sorry, old girl.” He ran a hand down the console. “Not much longer. I promise.”

*

_Polly slithered on the marble steps. She’d abandoned her shoes three flights back. There simply wasn’t time for high heels. There never seemed to be time to stop and breathe._

_She swung round a corner into a wide room. A hundred or more people were in there, their work abandoned. They were crowded around the windows, watching the firefight happening above them._

_“Do you think we’re safe here?” said Jamie._

_They’d raised the alarm as best they could. The captain of the guard had thanked them, and told them to go down, down as far as they could, away from the battle happening near the spire. “I don’t know,” said Polly. The explosions were barely audible, the floor not even trembling._

_Jamie stepped further into the room, gazing up at the window. “They’re just throwing themselves at the Tower,” he said. “Smashing themselves to bits. Like moths flying into a candle flame. What d’you think they want?”_

_“I don’t know if they **want** anything,” said Polly. “I think –”_

_“ **Polly**!” Unmistakeably, the Doctor’s voice, echoing across the atrium towards them. She turned and saw that the landing was empty. He must have been on the next landing up. “ **Polly, get out of there!** ” he called. “ **Get out of there at once!** ”_

_She didn’t hesitate. “Jamie!” she said. “We have to get out!”_

_He looked at her, his eyes wide, then turned to the crowd. “Get out!” he bellowed with his piper’s lungs. “Everyone, get out of here! It’s no’ safe!”_

_For a second they looked at him, befuddled. Then it sank in and there was a mad rush for the doors, crowds of people filling the landing, the stairs. People were crying out, screaming, and one or two fell. They dashed to help, hauling people to their feet, shepherding them to safety._

_“ **The doors!** ” the Doctor called again. “ **Polly, the doors!** ”_

_Doors? Casting about, she saw a metal handle, and tugged on it. It was too heavy, but in a flash Jamie was there, hauling with her, and together they dragged it closed. **Thump**. Not a moment too soon. The air roared, the stairs rocking beneath their feet, people howling in fear._

_A tremendous shattering of glass and the air around them whistled, sucked out through the cracks around the door, and for a second Polly thought they were done for, but she felt the door go **click** beneath her fingers, and all was still._

_“Is everyone alright?” said Jamie to the workers, sobbing and moaning._

_“They broke the window,” said a wide-eyed young woman._

_“Aye, so?” said Jamie._

_With grim certainty, she said, “we’ve lost our shields. We’re done for.”_

*

The grey people were everywhere, looming at them out of the darkness. There were patches of dust on the steps and floors and Zoe edged around them. Sometimes the air displaced by her passing was enough to crumble a grey person into a sad pile on the floor.

Every so often she caught a glimpse of movement, in the distance, in the corner of her eye. Spectral figures roaming the halls and staircases. Voices calling out from far away, long ago. They weren’t ghosts, she reminded herself. “I think time must be folding in on itself, somehow,” she speculated, more for her own benefit than Jamie’s. 

“So, you think we’re seeing people on the other fold?” said Jamie.

“That’s the idea,” said Zoe.

“Still,” said Jamie, his torch tracking the motion of a child skipping down a staircase. “They’re all dead, now.” He turned away. “This was the throne room.”

They passed through a towering, vaulted archway. The space beyond was lined with rows and rows of columns. There was still a glimmer of light overhead and by it they could see the throne, almost as high as the ceiling. It had been beautiful once, wrought and gilded, but now it was a mass of scaffolding and plumbing. “This is where that – thing we saw sat?” she said.

“The queen, aye.” The throne was empty, not even dust.

A breeze tugged at her hair, carrying with it voices. A cheerful murmur, as if they were standing in a crowd of happy people. And then suddenly they were. Translucent figures stood all around them, clad in a style that Zoe could only describe as ‘courtly’. She shrank away, Jamie’s hand finding hers.

“Do you think they can see us?” he whispered.

“I don’t know.” They gave no sign of it.

The crowd began to applaud. She heard whistling, high and thin. At the head of the hall she saw a woman, tall and slender with red curling hair, climbing the steps to the throne. She sat, and raised a hand, and beamed, and the crowd whooped.

“Is that – the queen?” said Zoe, marvelling.

“Sort of,” said Jamie. “It’s a bit of a long story.”

“ _I’ll_ say,” said Zoe.

The vision faded, leaving them alone in the darkness.

*

_“I’m so terribly sorry for the misunderstanding, Doctor,” said Queen Julia. “My guards can be a touch over-zealous. Do have some salad.”_

_“Everything’s delicious, your majesty,” said Victoria._

_“Please,” said Queen Julia. “Ma’am will suffice. Eat your fill. You must have had such a long journey!”_

_“Aye, you can say that again,” said Jamie._

_“It was a little, ah, arduous,” the Doctor confided._

_“Well, you are most welcome in my Tower!” Queen Julia spread her hands. “This is a place of safety and refuge for all. The people are the most precious thing in the Tower, you understand – when I’m gone, I intend for dominion to pass to them.”_

_“How fascinating.” The Doctor dabbed at his mouth with a linen napkin._

_An attendant touched the queen lightly on her shoulder. “Oh, dear,” she sighed. “Duty calls, I’m afraid.”_

_Once the door closed behind her, Jamie turned on the Doctor. “That cannae be the same woman!”_

_“Pardon me?” said Victoria._

_“The resemblance is striking, you must admit,” said the Doctor._

_“Well, aye, but she’s so –”_

_“Nice?” said the Doctor._

_“She is very nice,” said Victoria._

_“So she cannae be that monster we met before.”_

_“It’s not impossible,” said the Doctor. “A lot can change in a century. Especially if one’s leashed to infernal life-extending apparatus.”_

_“Aye, but why’d she put herself in that get-up in the first place?” Jamie jabbed his fork accusingly at the Doctor. “You heard what she said. She doesnae want to be queen forever.”_

_“She could be lying,” said the Doctor._

_“I don’t think she’s lying,” said Jamie._

_“Will one of you please tell me what you’re talking about?” said Victoria wearily._

_“I’ll explain later,” said the Doctor._

_The door opened. In swept Queen Julia – and for a moment Jamie was seeing double. At her heels was another woman so like the queen that she was distinguishable only by the colour of her gown._

_“My sister,” said Queen Julia, “the Princess Melissa.”_

_Princess Melissa smiled down at them. “Charmed,” she said. “I’m sure.”_

_Very slowly, the Doctor set down his napkin._

*

“So you assumed this Princess Melissa was the queen you met, in the future?” Zoe whispered.

“No, I _know_ she was,” said Jamie. “Will ye let me get on with it? And why are we whispering?”

“I don’t know,” said Zoe. “I suppose I’m just – on edge. And alright, so you found proof later that she became queen. But you couldn’t have known right away. You were just jumping to conclusions. _Again_.”

“Look, I may not know much,” said Jamie.

“You can say that again,” said Zoe.

“But I know people.” Jamie jabbed a thumb at his chest. “Queen Julia wasnae the queen we met. She couldn’t have been. She was a lot of things, but she was no killer.”

*

_“Your majesty!” cried Byron, racing the length of the throne room, the Doctor and Jamie hot on his heels. “Your majesty, we’ve lost our shields!”_

_“I know.” The queen’s voice rang through the hall, cutting across the roar of the explosions._

_“I’ve tried to restore them, but the system’s locking me out,” said Byron. “Your majesty, you’re our only hope!”_

_The Doctor rested a hand on Byron’s shoulder. “Byron, I think perhaps –”_

_The queen spoke again. “No.”_

_“Your majesty, the people are dying!”_

_“Let them die.”_

_Byron stared at his queen in disbelief. The Doctor tried to lead him away, but he resisted._

_“Let them all die. Let my folly be destroyed.”_

_“She’s gone mad,” said Jamie flatly._

_“I rather think she went mad a long time ago,” said the Doctor._

_“I summoned holy fire to cleanse my guilt!”_

_“You summoned –” Byron’s eyes glistened with tears as he understood. “You summoned them?”_

_“That was how they kept finding you,” said the Doctor softly._

_“What did I tell you?” Jamie muttered. “Something rotten.”_

_“In the state of Denmark, yes,” said the Doctor._

_“Eh?”_

_“But why?” gasped out Byron._

_“To end it,” said the queen. “Let them all die.”_

_“No!” Byron surged out of the Doctor’s grip. “We fought them! We’ll fight you too, if we have to! We’ll protect the Tower!”_

_“I am the Tower!”_

_“The Tower is its people!” cried Byron. “And the people are stronger than you!”_

_The sneer etched permanently onto the queen’s face seemed, somehow, to darken. With a dreadful creak of bone, she raised an arm. “They will all die!”_

_Lightning shot from her bony fingertips, lashing out through the air towards Byron. There was no time to dodge or duck, and with a cry of agony he crumpled to the floor and lay twitching – twitching – still._

_“You didn’t have to kill him!” Jamie’s hand went to his knife, as if he could somehow fight the horror before him._

_“Don’t antagonise her, Jamie.” The Doctor caught him by the arm._

_“I’ll antagonise her good and proper!”_

_“Jamie.” The Doctor urged him towards the door. The queen only had so much power. Soon she’d be recharged and ready for another blast. It most certainly wasn’t taking Jamie._

_“We cannae just let her get away with it!”_

_“We shan’t,” said the Doctor. “Now, when I say run –”_


	2. Episode 2

_In the throne room, the Doctor caught Jamie by the arm and dragged him towards the doors. The queen was already building power for another blast. There was no time._

_“We cannae just let her get away with it!”_

_“We shan’t,” said the Doctor. “Now, when I say run –”_

*

Scientifically speaking, it would have been quite fascinating if he wasn’t trapped in the middle of it, the Doctor reflected as he hopped down the stairs. He hadn’t seen time this snarled up in, well… a long time.

Far below, he could see the TARDIS. His own TARDIS, belonging to his moment in time. Perhaps he ought to have insisted Jamie and Zoe wait inside, but he didn’t want to worry them. 

There were two unfortunate truths he’d made an executive decision not to tell. The first was that this patch of time, despite its apparent tranquillity, was scrunching in on itself violently, and sooner rather than later it would contract to a point. The second was that they couldn’t leave. The TARDIS was part of the tangle.

“What a pickle,” he said aloud. A pair of time echoes crossed the atrium, their laughing voices carried gently up to him. “And what a dreadful waste.”

*

_“Oh, Doctor, it was dreadful!” exclaimed Victoria, near tears._

_“Take a deep breath, my dear, and tell us from the beginning,” said the Doctor._

_They were meeting in a mildly conspiratorial fashion in a store room off the main control chamber. With them was Felix, the Tower’s newly appointed chief engineer. Jamie had him pegged as poor Byron’s grandfather – or maybe great-grandfather. The resemblance was striking._

_Victoria did as she was told. “I was looking around Princess Melissa’s chambers, like you said,” she related. “And there was nothing there – or at least I didn’t think there was – but then I found a hidden door, at the back of her wardrobe –”_

_“A secret passage?” said the Doctor, his eyebrows leaping up in excitement._

_“Only a short one,” said Victoria._

_“Oh,” said the Doctor, eyebrows drooping._

_“You’re saying Melissa’s got some secret room?” said Jamie. “I **told** you she was up to no good!”_

_“You haven’t heard the worst part,” said Victoria. “I couldn’t see inside – the door at the other end was locked, I, I think – but she was in there, with that, that awful man. And they were –” Her voice dropped to an urgent whisper. “They were talking about **murdering** the queen.”_

_“What?” said the Doctor, his eyebrows going up again._

_“ **What**?” exclaimed Felix._

_“Told you,” muttered Jamie._

_“She can’t,” said Felix. “She wouldn’t dream of it. She’d never get away with it!” He looked to the Doctor. “ **Would** she?”_

_“Did she say how?” said the Doctor._

_“No,” said Victoria. “She was telling her lackey to make it look like an accident. And– oh, Doctor, this was the worst part – she’s going to make it look like she’s died.”_

_“Eh?” said Jamie. “She’s gonnae kill the queen, and then fake her death? Why?”_

_“You don’t understand,” said Victoria. “She’s going to kill Julia, and everyone’s going to think **she’s** the dead one and Julia’s still alive – but it won’t be Julia, it’ll be Melissa. She’ll be queen and no-one will be any the wiser.”_

_The full twisted horror of it struck Jamie all at once. “Oh,” he said. “Oh, no. But – Doctor, that explains why –”_

_“Yes, quite,” said the Doctor. “I’m so sorry, Victoria. That sounds as if it was very frightening.”_

_“But what are we gonnae do?” said Jamie._

_“Do?” the Doctor blinked at him. “I don’t see what we can do.”_

_“We could tell the queen!” exclaimed Felice._

_“Tell her what?” said the Doctor. “We’ve no proof. All we have is Victoria’s word against Melissa’s.”_

_He was right. As it sank in, Jamie’s stomach turned sour. He could see it playing out in his mind’s eye, Melissa killing her sister – becoming queen – her determination to eke her power out as long as she could – her guilt – that twisted **thing** that ruled the Tower in the future._

_“We… **might** have proof,” said Felix._

_“What?” said the Doctor._

_“That – chamber,” said Felix. “It isn’t as secret as Melissa thinks it is. My brother’s husband was the queen’s head of security – he learned of it some time ago, and installed a listening device.”_

_“Where’s he now?” said Jamie. “Could he tell the queen –”_

_“Dead,” said Felix glumly. “A year ago, of a sudden illness.”_

_“Does the queen know about this?” said the Doctor._

_“Not a word. He didn’t want to alarm her,” said Felix. “But if we could get the recording from that device –”_

_“If it’s been there over a year Melissa’s bound to have noticed it,” said Victoria._

_“Maybe,” said Felix. “But it was a cunning device. It had a concealed back-up system – if you didn’t know exactly what you were looking for, you’d miss it.”_

_“So we could get that?” said Jamie._

_“Very possibly,” said the Doctor. Clearing his throat, the Doctor said, “Felix, why don’t you see if you can find out more about this – listening device?”_

_“Right away, Doctor,” said Felix, hurrying out of the store room._

_“Well!” The Doctor clapped his hands together. “This is a pickle and no mistake. Jamie, Victoria, I think it’s high time we went back to the TARDIS.”_

_“What?” said Victoria._

_“ **What**?” said Jamie._

_“We could be somewhere nice by tea time,” said the Doctor. “How about that?”_

_“Doctor, there’s going to be a murder!” said Victoria._

_“Yes, and most unfortunately it’s going to go off without a hitch,” said the Doctor. “Victoria, I know this is difficult, but we’ve already seen the consequences of this. Melissa is going to be queen, and she’s going to get her just desserts. Jamie’ll tell you. Won’t you, Jamie?”_

_“Aye, and hundreds of people are gonnae die first!” snapped Jamie. “We could –”_

_“No,” said the Doctor._

_“But –”_

_“No! Jamie, you have to understand,” said the Doctor. “Those people are already dead. We saw all of it. We can’t change what’s already happened.”_

_“But it hasnae happened yet!”_

_“It **has** ,” said the Doctor. “It’s part of our personal past, Jamie. If you try to alter that you could – could rip the universe in two!”_

_“That seems a touch hyperbolic,” said Victoria._

_“I assure you, it isn’t,” said the Doctor. “But changing what happened here is quite impossible. I really think we ought to leave now, before things get messy.”_

_“Ach, you never stick around long enough to see the consequences, do ye?” said Jamie. He shoved past the Doctor to the door._

_“Where are you going?” said the Doctor._

_“For a walk,” said Jamie. “I’ll see you back at the TARDIS. Don’t worry.”_

*

The further he descended, the thicker the echoes grew, the more substantial. Timelines, blurring together. It would have been beautiful, in its own way, were the images not so ugly. Images of war, of that dreadful war that was fought in this beautiful place.

On a wide landing, the Doctor stooped, touched the cracked tiles. His fingertips came away thick with grey dust that dissolved at the contact. Turning away with a sigh, he looked through the adjacent doorway.

What he saw all but took the Doctor’s breath away. There stood Polly, just as he remembered her, and beside her Jamie, so young, so fiercely idealistic. And beyond them was a mob of echoes, pressed to what had once been a window, now a slab of metal patching a hole.

And yet it was a window. He could see a ghostly impression of what lay beyond, the stars – the attackers. In an instant, he saw what was coming.

“Polly!” he cried out without thinking. She looked towards him, didn’t see him. “Polly, get out of there! Get out of there at once!”

“Jamie, we have to get out,” he heard her say, her voice so long ago. He heard Jamie roar out a warning and then he stood amidst a torrent of fleeing echoes. But getting away from the window wasn’t enough. “The doors! The doors, Polly!”

The vision faded, and he was alone on the landing, alone and staring at a wall of dull steel. He had to presume his warning had been enough, for Polly and Jamie had survived – but time could be so very fickle.

*

_The listening device opened easily, a neat pop of plastic. Inside was an assortment of wires and an empty space where it had once stored sound. Just as Jamie had expected, Princess Melissa had got to it a long while ago._

_A few tiny screws, fiddly but not difficult to remove, and the wire compartment came away in his hands. Behind it was a flat silver disc. That was it. The recording._

_Jamie pried it out. It was so light. Strange to think so many lives depended on it._

_If the Doctor knew what he was up to, he’d skin Jamie alive. For a moment he considered backing down, putting the disc back where he’d found it and pretending this had never happened. He closed the listening device._

_He thought he’d got away with it, but as he closed the secret passage behind him the hairs on the back of his neck rose up. He turned and saw not Melissa but her lackey._

_“I was just, erm,” he said. No use. He bolted._

_The lackey caught up with him in the passage outside, tackled him to the ground, but Jamie was ready. He flung his elbow back, catching the other man’s nose. The lackey howled and lashed out and soon Jamie was pinned to the floor, struggling, gripping the recording so tight his palm ached._

_“What is that?” Taking his wrist, the lackey smacked his hand down on the stone floor. Jamie gritted his teeth, didn’t let go. “What did you take?” **Smack**. The recording slipped from his fingers, skittering across the floor. Jamie grabbed for it, half rolling over, only to be dragged bodily away._

_He hit back, hard as he could, sending the other man stumbling. A swift kick to his ankles and he went down. Jamie swung around, searching for the recording – it was gone._

_It couldn’t be gone. He’d seen it mere moments ago, lying in plain view. There was no-one in sight who could have taken it._

_Huge hands grabbed him from behind, and numbly he let himself be dragged away._

*

“There you are Jamie, Zoe.” The Doctor was leaning against the balustrade, fooling with his torch, tossing it up and down, casual as anything.

“You’re the one who wandered off,” said Zoe. “You _said_ you’d see us back at the TARDIS. Remember?”

“Did I?” said the Doctor. “Well, you can see it from here.” He nodded at the flashing light far below them. “I don’t suppose Jamie’s filled you in?”

“You mean, about your last two visits?” said Zoe. “Sort of.”

“I told you the whole story!” Jamie protested.

“You’re not exactly an unbiased source.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You know, Jamie,” said the Doctor absently, “I think you might have been right.”

“Eh?” said Jamie. “About telling the story?”

“No, not that.” With a sigh, the Doctor turned towards the nearest arch. “Let’s see what’s in here, shall we?”

“What’s he talking about?” said Zoe.

“No idea,” said Jamie. “He’s in one of those moods. _Again_.”

Through the archway was what had once been the control room. A space like a church with rows upon row of computer terminals beneath the vaulted ceiling. Jamie remembered it as a hive of flashing lights and activity. Now it might as well have been a tomb.

“You see, Zoe.” The Doctor wiped dust from a keyboard. “The Tower was built by refugees fleeing an interstellar war. It was supposed to be a safe haven – somewhere apart from the rest of the universe.”

“It must have been entirely self-sufficient,” Zoe marvelled.

“Quite,” said the Doctor. “And then of course, if they were ever under threat, they could use this – transport themselves to another part of space entirely.”

“Aye, for all the good it did them,” said Jamie.

“The engineering was brilliant,” the Doctor reminded him.

“If you say so.” Jamie rested his hands on the back of the computer terminal. The Doctor waved him away.

“I said don’t touch!”

“You’re touching it,” said Zoe.

“I know what I’m doing.” The Doctor touched a finger to his lips in thought, and then, very carefully, typed in a series of numbers. For a split second the screen was alight, – and then it was blank.

“Hey,” said Jamie. “Did ye just –”

“Our current co-ordinates,” said the Doctor. “We’re almost precisely on top of a temporal rift.”

“Is that like,” said Zoe. “A fault line – in time?”

“A little,” said the Doctor. “I, I imagine it’s why what happened here affected this place so dramatically. I never imagined the results would be so fatal.”

“You did something,” said Zoe. “Didn’t you?”

“Didn’t Jamie tell you?” The Doctor looked at her a touch guiltily.

“I never really understood what it was you did,” Jamie confessed.

“Hmm,” said the Doctor. “Well, it’s no matter. I think we’d best have a closer look at this apparatus – before it falls apart altogether.”

*

_“Jamie! Polly!” The Doctor was half-running, half-sliding down the stairs towards you. “Oh, oh there you are.” He jumped the last few steps to the landing and reached for them as they reached for him. “Are you alright?”_

_“Ach, bruised,” said Jamie._

_“We’re fine, Doctor,” said Polly. “We were wondering where you’d got to. Doctor, how did you know what was going to happen? Just now?”_

_“I don’t know what you mean,” said the Doctor._

_“The shields,” said Polly. “How did you know they were going to lose the shields?”_

_“I didn’t,” said the Doctor. “I can’t think what happened –”_

_“But you warned us,” said Polly._

_He blinked at her. “I did?”_

_“Just now, on the upper level. You called out to us just before the bug hit.”_

_“No I didn’t.”_

_“But you did!”_

_“I was in the control room, with Byron,” said the Doctor._

_“I heard you call out!”_

_“Aye, we both did,” said Jamie._

_“Did you really?” said the Doctor. “Hmm. How fascinating. Well, no time for that now. Polly, my dear, go to the infirmary. See that Ben’s alright – try to get him ready to walk, if he isn’t already. Jamie, I, I think you’d best stay with me.”_

_“Right,” said Polly, hastening away._

_“Where are we going?” said Jamie, following the Doctor back up the stairs._

_“To an audience with the queen,” said the Doctor._

*

Leaving the Doctor and Zoe to their work in the control room, Jamie wandered out into the atrium, antsy, eager to stretch his legs. Sweeping his torch across the darkened space, he saw more grey people across the way, the landing choked with them. They hadn’t been there before.

He let his feet carry him, up the stairs, into a still darker and gloomier part of the tower. He remembered this. He stopped short. He shouldn’t wander so far, in a place so dangerous.

Ahead, there came a cry, an echo from far away, and reflexively he quickened his pace. He followed the sound to a vaulted archway – and rounding the corner he came face to face with himself.

Perhaps a year younger, wrestling an opponent less imposing than he remembered. An ugly sight. An unhappy memory. The recording fell from his ghostly self’s hand and unthinking he stooped to pick it up.

It was only when he was holding it in his hand that he realised this was all wrong. It was an image – a memory. Somehow, perhaps out of sheer ignorance, he’d reached into it and brought something back.

He looked up – into his own eyes, unseeing. His own ghost, standing before him, shoulders heaving, hands clenched into fists. With a sinking feeling, he realised he was looking for the recording.

“Oh, Jamie,” he said as Melissa’s long-dead lackey dragged his other self out of sight. “Jamie Mccrimmon, you damn fool.”

*

_“We’re no’ leaving?” said Jamie as they hammered down the stairs, against the rush of people fleeing to where it was safe. The Bugs were targeting the Tower’s engines. He could feel the rumble of explosions through his feet._

_“Of course not!”_

_“But you said –”_

_“I said we were going back to the TARDIS.” The Doctor leapt the last few steps. “No time to lose!” Taking Jamie by the arm, he dragged him to the ship. “We’ll just have to try it the risky way.” Together, they tumbled into the control room, the roar of the battle fading away in an instant._

_“The risky way?” Jamie got it. “You’re no’ gonnae take off, are you?”_

_“It’s the only way,” said the Doctor, flicking switches._

_“Doctor.” Jamie gripped the Doctor’s shoulder, made him look him in the eye. “If you leave Ben and Polly here, I’ll –”_

_“I’m not leaving anyone behind,” said the Doctor. “If I can only calculate – oh.” He stared down at the screen with its row of numbers, his face a picture of confusion. “That’s funny.”_

_“Eh?” said Jamie._

_“It looks as if someone – well, I’ll, I’ll worry about that later.” Leaning past Jamie, the Doctor hit the dematerialisation switch. “Hold on. This might be bumpy.”_

*

In the Tower control room, Jamie set the disc atop the terminal with a soft _tap_.

“Oh, there you are.” The Doctor squinted at the mass of wires he’d pulled out. “You really mustn’t wander off like that – what’s that?”

“It’s the recording.”

“Recording?” The Doctor picked up the disc, mystified.

“The one I stole from that secret room,” said Jamie.

“Goodness me,” said the Doctor. “Where did you find that?”

“On the floor, where I dropped it.” Jamie leaned wearily on the terminal, ignoring the Doctor’s disapproving look. “I don’t understand.”

“It’s just as well you took it,” said the Doctor. “The data on here could re-write the timeline.”

“Aye, but if I hadn’t taken it I wouldn’t have lost it in the first place!” Jamie jabbed a finger at him. 

“These things happen.”

“Not to most people they don’t!”

“I think you’d better keep ahold of this.” The Doctor slid the disc back to him. “And do try not to cross your own timeline, in future.”

“It’s no’ as if I did it on purpose!”

From the other side of the control room there was a cry of alarm, and Zoe came running. “Is something the matter?” said the Doctor absently.

“Doctor.” She pointed “Doctor, look.”

The terminals were coming apart, breaking into clumps of greyish dust. Further away the same thing was happening to the thick walls of the tower itself, layers peeling back, stripping away all that separated them from the void beyond.

“Oh, my!” the Doctor leapt to his feet. “I think we’d better move.” But he lingered, watching the process in fascination. There was a hypnotic quality to it even as death approached them by the second.

“Doctor, come on!” said Zoe, and they ran.

Together the Doctor and Jamie slammed the heavy door shut behind them, for all the good that would do, and they stood catching their breaths. “Upstairs,” said the Doctor. “Both of you. All the way up. Go to the spire – you remember the way, Jamie.”

“Aye, I think so,” said Jamie. “But –”

“That’s the centre of all this,” said the Doctor. “It’s the safest place in the Tower.”

“But where are _you_ going?” said Zoe.

“Back to the TARDIS.” 

“Can’t we –”

“Up,” said the Doctor firmly. “No arguments. And run!” With a soft hissing, dust ran down the metal of the door like droplets of water on a melting iceberg. “Go!”

No daring to protest any further, they ran.

*

_“Oh, my,” said the Doctor, gripping the console, dragging himself upright. “Oh, that was a rough landing.”_

_“It’s no’ as if we went very far,” Jamie grumbled from the floor._

_“Some sort of – temporal interference,” said the Doctor. “The TARDIS didn’t want to land here – poor thing.” He patted the console, then with a sigh dropped to his knees and popped open a panel._

_“What’re you doing?” said Jamie._

_“I’ll explain later,” said the Doctor. “Hold this.” He handed Jamie the panel._

_Jamie watched in bewilderment as the Doctor operated on the TARDIS’s innards, cutting through wires, tearing out componants, sparking and fizzling, his hair standing on end. He fetched a length of fat cable from another room and handed on end to Jamie. “Take this outside,” he said. “There should be a ladder – leads right up into the spire. Unplug the central cable and put this in instead.”_

_“But how did you –”_

_“Just get on with it,” said the Doctor._

_The Tower juddering around him, Jamie hooked the cable around his elbow and climbed the ladder, the walls growing closer in around him as the spire narrowed. At the top was a space just wide enough to take a man. Cables looped out of the walls, arcing elegantly into a ring. From it rose a taut line, stretching up to the very top of the spire, a few feet above._

_A firm tug, and it came down. Gritting his teeth, he stretched up – up – boosting himself on the arcing cables, till he could reach – yes. The cable clicked into place._

_Almost at once, the very ground beneath his feet began to shudder, a low, building rumble. The Bugs. The Bugs were firing on the spire. He scrambled madly for the ladder._

_He lost his grip and half-slid half-fell to the floor that was bucking like the deck of a ship in a storm. Turning, he saw the TARDIS shifting, slipping hazily from side to side in his vision, splitting apart and snapping together –_

_A flash of impossibly bright light, and he fell back into the wall, into darkness._

*

“He knows more than he’s telling us,” said Zoe as they struggled up the stairs. “He’s up to something.”

“Isn’t he always?” said Jamie, a flight ahead of her. 

“It’s obviously some sort of paradox,” she said. “I think he thinks we’re too stupid to make sense of it.”

“Speak for yourself,” said Jamie. “I _am_ that stupid.”

Zoe rolled her eyes. “So, you stole a disc from yourself, because you lost it before, but you only lost it before because you took it now. And you stole it in the first place to try and stop a war you already saw happening, even though you knew that was impossible.”

“Should have been impossible for me to take the recording, shouldn’t it?” On the landing above, Jamie paused for breath, leaning on the balustrade. “Oh, no.”

“What?” Zoe climbed the last few steps – and saw what he’d seen. The stairs, looping all the way down, down to the atrium, were turning grey and dissolving into nothingness. “Oh, _no_.”

“What do we do?” said Jamie.

Zoe considered their options. There weren’t many. “We run.”

*

_“I can’t believe you’d do something so – so idiotic!” the Doctor ranted, stomping up the steps into the spire. “After I specifically **told** you to leave it alone!”_

_“People are going tae **die**!” said Jamie._

_At the top of the stairs, the Doctor wheeled on him. “We already saved them!”_

_“Aye, some of them!”_

_“Well, sometimes that’s all we can do.” The Doctor went to the TARDIS. “People are dying all over the universe – we can’t save all of them,” he said, rooting through his pockets for the key._

_“You could have at least tried!” said Jamie._

_“There are **rules**.”_

_“To hell with the rules! We could’ve made it better!”_

_“That’s a dangerous path, Jamie Mccrimmon.” The TARDIS door swung open. “Get inside. We’ll talk about this later.”_

_“We’ll talk about it now!”_

_“Please,” said Victoria, lingering in the arched doorway. “Please, stop arguing. Can’t we please go?” She looked over her shoulder. “Listen.”_

_Below them, Jamie heard cries of horror and grief, voices echoing up the stairs. “It’s the princess!” a voice called. “The princess is dead!”_

_Looking back at the TARDIS, Jamie caught a glimpse of an unfamiliar expression on the Doctor’s face, a wide-eyed look of horror and guilt – but he shook himself, and stepped away. “Get inside. Both of you. We should leave them to their grief.”_

_“They’ll never know, will they?” said Victoria._

_“They mustn’t,” said the Doctor._

*

The crypts below the Tower were dark and choked with grey dust. Even as the Doctor walked, more pillars collapsed into gritty nothingness, the ceiling groaning in protest. Soon the whole place would come down around his ears.

Just ahead was another iteration of his TARDIS, ghostly white against the darkness. In a trice he was through the door.

“One last thing,” he muttered as he crossed the shimmering floor. At his touch, the screen lit up, ready for commands. “Now,” he said, rolling up his sleeve, “sixteen – delta…”

The co-ordinates input, the screen blinked off. He was playing a dangerous game as it was; what he intended to do next was downright suicidal. Steeling himself, he left the echo TARDIS and ran full-tilt for the stairs.

*

_“Jamie.”_

_“Hmmrh?” Jamie squinted blinking away spots. He was lying on the cold stone floor of the Tower, the Doctor crouching over him._

_“Are you feeling better?” The Doctor patted his cheek. “Dreadfully sorry. I thought you’d be safely in the TARDIS by the time… well.”_

_“ **You** did that?” Jamie dragged himself more or less upright. “I thought it was the Bugs.”_

_“Yes, well.” The Doctor adjusted his coat. “No need to worry about that. They’re gone.”_

_“Eh?” said Jamie. “What did you do?”_

_“I gave the TARDIS force field a little boost and hooked it into the Tower’s shielding system.”_

_“Is that good?” said Jamie._

_“Depends on your perspective,” said the Doctor. “The power surge was a little, ah, more intense than I intended. The Bugs around the tower – poof! Vaporised.”_

_“That sounds like a good thing to me.” Jamie rubbed his sore head._

_“Well, not if you’re a bug,” said the Doctor. He gave Jamie a nudge. “Come on. Best make sure everyone’s alright.”_

*

Gasping, legs and sides aching, Zoe dragged herself up the spiral staircase, into the spire. Not quite the top of the Tower – a ladder on the wall led still higher.

By the wall stood – the TARDIS. Only not the TARDIS. A translucent, glowing image of the TARDIS, stark against the blackness. A vivid time echo. Jamie stood by it, passing his hand through the door.

“I don’t think you should touch it,” said Zoe as Jamie pulled back his hand in alarm. “I think –”

“ _– already **saved** them_!” Hearing the Doctor’s voice, Zoe thought he’d come to join them – but it wasn’t him. Or rather, it was him, but not the right him.

“ _Aye, some of them_!” Jamie’s voice called from very far away.

“ _Well, sometimes that’s all we can do_ ,” said the echo of the Doctor, brushing past her to the TARDIS. “ _People are drying all over the universe – we can’t save all of them._ ”

“ _You could have at least tried_!” said the echo of Jamie from the doorway. Zoe shifted in closer to her Jamie. His hand settled on her shoulder.

“ _There are **rules!**_ ” said the echo-Doctor, unlocking the echo-TARDIS.

“ _To hell with the rules! We could’ve made it better!_ ”

“ _That’s a dangerous path, Jamie Mccrimmon,_ ” said the Doctor, his voice lower, angrier than Zoe had ever heard it. “ _Get inside. We’ll talk about this later._ ”

“ _We’ll talk about it now!_ ”

The ghosts faded. “That was _really_ creepy,” Zoe said into the silence that followed.

“I forgot about that,” said Jamie.

“You _forgot_?” Zoe twisted to look up at his face, mostly in shadow.

“Well, I didn’t really want to remember,” said Jamie.

Before she could reply, a sound broke the air, a rending groan of engines. Wind rippled across her face and as one they stepped back, away from the TARDIS.

It flickered from ghostly white, to blue, to white, and with a final _boom_ , to substance. A moment later the door opened and the Doctor’s head poked out. Bashfully, he said “I think you’d better come in.”

*

_In the throne room, the queen’s guards had fled. The only sound was the low rasp of her breathing. Jamie thought her unconscious, but at their approach her eyes lifted._

_“Let me help you,” said the Doctor. “It isn’t too late.”_

_“All I wanted,” she said in a voice that sputtered. “All I wanted – to scourge away my guilt.”_

_“It’s over now,” said the Doctor. “Perhaps there’s still a way to make it right.”_

_The queen didn’t speak again. She lifted her head, angling her eyes towards something at the base of her throne. The Doctor nodded. He understood, even as Jamie stood, baffled, watching as he edged towards the throne. At its foot he stooped and prodded at the shining surface._

_“Doctor,” Jamie began. The Doctor shushed him._

_Quietly, he dug in his fingers and peeled back a layer of golden foil. Beneath it the throne was grey, a mass of wires. Reaching in, the Doctor brought out one especially thick cable – and his face set into a decisive expression, he tugged it out._

_From above them, a soft gasp. A hum of power Jamie’d barely been aware of faded. He stepped back and saw the queen, her head fallen back, finally, finally dead._

_“Life support,” said the Doctor softly. He rested a hand on Jamie’s shoulder. “Couldn’t do it on her own. Come along. We’d best be going.”_

_“I suppose it was all for the best,” Jamie said as they walked to the doors, not looking back._

_“Quite,” said the Doctor._

*

“You see, I, I made a terrible mistake,” the Doctor said as he danced around the console.

“You mean, coming back here?” said Zoe, struggling to follow his ramblings.

That gave him pause. “Perhaps,” he said. “Perhaps it was coming here in the first place. But you were right, Jamie.”

“I was?”

“None of this should have happened.” The Doctor patted down his pockets, and looked Jamie in the eye. “Do you still have that recording?”

Jamie brought it out, weighing it in his hand. “Are you saying we should have used this?”

“To be perfectly honest, I haven’t the slightest idea.” The Doctor juggled his screwdriver. “But if we’d been able to stop Melissa in the first place, there wouldn’t have been any war – and if there hadn’t been any war, I, I wouldn’t have had to use the TARDIS to save the Tower – and if I hadn’t used the TARDIS force field, that, that frightful mess out there wouldn’t be happening.”

“How did you using the TARDIS force field do that?” Jamie jerked his head at the doors.

“It’s hard to explain.” From a slot on the console the Doctor drew a long string of ticker-tape covered in numbers. “Oh dear, oh dear – you see, I knew the rift in time would boost the TARDIS’s capacity, but I hadn’t taken into account the _other_ two TARDISes – on the same spot.”

“The other two?” Jamie echoed.

“You mean – your own TARDIS, twice over?” said Zoe.

“Quite right, Zoe,” said the Doctor.

“So you, what, tripled the effect?”

“Exactly!” The Doctor threw up his hands. “Boom! I, I bonded the Tower to the rift – and my poor old TARDIS, well, she keeps being dragged back here whether she wants to or not.”

“Hang on, that makes no sense,” said Jamie. “You said this happened because we were here twice more –”

“Precisely!” said the Doctor. “It’s a triple-strand temporal knot is what it is. It’s sucked the life out of this place – and it’s all my fault.” He hit one last switch and stood back, apparently satisfied with his work. “Jamie, give me the disc.”

“What are you gonnae do with it?” said Jamie.

“What I should have done in the first place – maybe,” said the Doctor. “Thank you. Now.” He slipped the disc into a slot in the console. “Both of you, hold onto something good and tight. Ready?”

“For what?” said Zoe.

“Good,” said the Doctor, and thumped a button.

It was as if the TARDIS turned upside down – and inside out. As they clung to the console they saw it reflected above them and all around them, as if they were in a hall of mirrors – 

_“It’s quite safe, Victoria, just a little dark –”_

_“So you’re telling me while I was off in a hospital bed you took down a whole alien army? Cor, Doctor, you don’t half –”_

_“That’s funny. Nothing on the scanner at all…”_

Cutting over it all a voice, a sharp, clear woman’s voice. The recording beginning to play. _“Once Julia’s gone the people will have a real queen, a strong queen – a queen who’ll never die. I shall dress in her clothes, and we’ll dress her body in mine, before she has her ‘fall’. No-one will suspect a thing.”_

Melissa’s voice echoed around the spire, down the stairs into the empty, crumbling tower, and still further than that, back through time to another TARDIS, another Tower. 

All through the Tower people raised their heads in astonishment at the voice coming from the air around them – astonishment, and understanding. On her stolen throne Melissa’s face turned to stone as her own words echoed back to her.

In the spire, with a juddering roar the TARDIS faded away, its edges blurring, smudging into the air itself as the floor beneath it dissolved into dust. The Tower melted away, its thick walls and tall spire softening, sagging, spreading till all that remained was a cloud of dust.

All around it, the ghostly images of the Bugs, thousands upon thousands of them, flickered one last time, and were gone.

*

Zoe awoke to the familiar hum of the TARDIS console room. The ship was in flight, though she didn’t remember taking off. She ached as if she’d run a mile. She got to her feet, and staggered.

From the other side of the console there came a groan, and Jamie’s hand appeared, levering himself up. He popped into view, tousled and grumpy. “Doctor?” he said.

“Here.”

The Doctor was sitting below the console, his legs stretched out across the floor, looking quite dazed, cradling something to his chest.

“Did it,” said Zoe, searching for the right word. “Work?”

“Hm?” The Doctor looked up at her. “Difficult to say. We’re not attached to the rift any more. We never were. We’re at the point in time and space where we ought to have been.”

“So you’re saying, none of it happened?” said Jamie.

“In a way.”

“But we still remember it,” said Zoe.

“Well, of course you do.” The Doctor opened his hands and for a split second Zoe saw a silvery disc. Then it was gone, leaving a handful of dust that tumbled onto his lap and drifted away. “Hmm.”

“Are you alright?” said Jamie.

The Doctor looked up at him, quite astonished. He leapt to his feet and clapped his hands together. “Best be on our way!” he said. “I’m sure we have somewhere to be.” He bounded around the console.

“The people in the Tower,” said Jamie. “Will _they_ be alright?”

Busying himself with the controls, the Doctor said, “I hope so, Jamie. I really do.”


End file.
